ALBANY — If you’re stopping by the Department of Environmental Conservation, be prepared to play postman.

The latest hard-times budget edict handed down by the Paterson administration has the 3,300 employees in the state environmental agency carrying mail to cut shipping costs.

The director of the DEC’s Long Island regional office circulated a memo earlier this month calling on volunteers to tote mail and office supplies on their next trip to other agency branches.

“If you are planning to go to [Queens] or [Albany] in the next few weeks, please let me know if you could also carry interoffice mail or bring back supplies,” said the memo, which was reported yesterday the Times Union of Albany.

“We can’t pay for any shipping until the state budget is passed,” the memo continued.

Meanwhile, Gov. Paterson escalated his war with public-employee unions by freezing overtime for all state workers who don’t provide essential services, like police work or hospital care.